Research Constituents and Authorship Patterns in the Production and Operations Management Journal

The Production and Operations Management Society is the largest professional society dedicated to creating and disseminating knowledge in product and process design, operations, and supply chains for the management of manufacturing and services. Its research journal, Production and Operations Management (POM), covers all topics in the discipline and all research paradigms to serve the entire community. Since its inception in 1992, POM has become recognized as a top tier outlet for operations management research. We identify research institutions in the operations management community that have played major roles in developing the journal based on the research of their faculty members and doctoral graduates. Our findings show that the constituency of the journal reflects the constituency of the society.     

The Strategy‐Focused Factory in Turbulent Times

Few unfocused factories outperform competitors, but focus is elusive because the environment is constantly evolving and this requires changes to a factory's key tasks. So how can focus be achieved and sustained? We present insights derived from an historical analysis of the German Hewlett‐Packard server plant which went through a series of focus changes over the years. Using this example, we provide clues for the right timing of focus changes and discuss critical structural and infrastructural changes required during the focus transitions, as well as cross‐functional coordination and leadership challenges. Our assertion is that production operations constitute a system that can adapt to disruptive change by using the levers of manufacturing policies to stay focused on a limited but absolutely essential task which creates a strategic advantage.     

The Muscatine children's obesity data reanalysed using pattern mixture models

A set of longitudinal binary, partially incomplete, data on obesity among children in the USA is reanalysed. The multivariate Bernoulli distribution is parameterized by the univariate marginal probabilities and dependence ratios of all orders, which together support maximum likelihood inference. The temporal association of obesity is strong and complex but stationary. We fit a saturated model for the distribution of response patterns and find that non-response is missing completely at random for boys but that the probability of obesity is consistently higher among girls who provided incomplete records than among girls who provided complete records. We discuss the statistical and substantive features of, respectively, pattern mixture and selection models for this data set.     

Family/work roles' relation to perceived stress: Do gender and ethnicity matter?

This exploratory research examines whether gender and ethnic differences exist in family- and work-related variables that best predict perceived stress. The Anglo male (N=115) and female (N=199) and Mexican-American male (N=35) and female (N=85) respondents each had the roles of employee, spouse, and parent. Data were collected by mail questionnaire from state-classified employees at the three land-grant universities in Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming as part of Cooperative Regional Research Project W-167. Regression analysis indicates that role overload is a significant predictor of stress for Anglo males and females and Mexican-American females, thus providing some support for the role strain theory, which suggests that increasing the number of roles drains personal resources and may increase stress. Satisfaction with family roles enters regression equations as significant predictors for two sample groups. Other variables enter only one of the four regression equations; thus ethnicity and gender differences are found in the variables predicting perceived stress and should be considered in future research in this area. The research was funded by the Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Stations as part of Cooperative Regional Research Project, W-167, “Work, Stress, and Families.” Her research interests include issues related to balancing work and family and to family resource management. She received her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include grief and loss issues and family support systems. She received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University. His research interest is minority families, and his Ph.D. is from Florida State University. Her research interest is Latino family functioning. Her Ph.D. is from New Mexico State University. His research interest is human resource development emphasizing ranching families. He received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University.     

THREE-WAY STRATIFICATION SAMPLING DESIGN WHEN ONE OF THE STRATIFYING VARIABLES IS TIME

Bryant, Hartley & Jessen (1960) presented a two‐way stratification sampling design when the sample size n is less than the number of strata. Their design was extended to a three‐way stratification case by Chaudhary & Kumar (1988) , but this design does not take into account serial correlation, which might be present as a result of the presence of a time variable. In this paper, a new sampling procedure is presented for three‐way stratification when one of the stratifying variables is time. The purpose of such a design is to take into account serial correlation. The variance of the unweighted estimator of the population mean with respect to a super population model is used as the basis for comparison. Simulation results show that the suggested design is more efficient than the Chaudhary & Kumar (1988) design.     

President Bush's major post-Katrina speeches: Enhancing image repair discourse theory applied to the public sector

When Hurricane Katrina swept the Gulf Coast, President Bush's newly formed Department of Homeland Security received its first test and failed. In Katrina's aftermath, Bush not only had to manage one of the nation's worst natural disasters, but also had to quell political backlash about the federal government's response to Katrina. This study examines: (a) how Bush presented the federal response to Katrina in his speeches; (b) how Bush responded to the public's criticism in his speeches; and (c) how effective Bush's speeches were in repairing his tarnished image.     

Tiny Publics: Small Groups and Civil Society

It has been conventional to conceptualize civic life through one of two core images: the citizen as lone individualist or the citizen as joiner. Drawing on analyses of the historical development of the public sphere, we propose an alternative analytical framework for civic engagement based on small-group interaction. By embracing this micro‐level approach, we contribute to the debate on civil society in three ways. By emphasizing local interaction contexts—the microfoundations of civil society—we treat small groups as a cause, context, and consequence of civic engagement. First, through framing and motivating, groups encourage individuals to participate in public discourse and civic projects. Second, they provide the place and support for that involvement. Third, civic engagement feeds back into the creation of additional groups. A small‐groups perspective suggests how civil society can thrive even if formal and institutional associations decline. Instead of indicating a decline in civil society, a proliferation of small groups represents a healthy development in democratic societies, creating cross‐cutting networks of affiliation.     

Age and Gender Differerences In a Social Process Model of Adolescent Cigarette Use*

This study examines how age and gender influence the ability of social process theory to explain adolescent cigarette use. Differences in the causal effects of social process variables for three age periods for male and female adolescents are examined. Longitudinal data from a sample of midwestern adolescents are analyzed using path analyses procedures. Findings from these analyses indicate that social process theory is better able to account for cigarette use among older females than any other age and gender group. For females, commitment to education and school activities were better predictors of cigarette smoking at a later age than an earlier age, whereas the opposite was found for belief in conventional societal rules. For males, previous smoking was the major variable in all three age groups to directly affect subsequent smoking. These findings are discussed in terms of previous age and gender research.     

Complex families and equality in child support obligations: A comparative policy analysis

Family complexity creates difficulties for child support policy. We examine whether policy in 14 countries results in nonresident parents having equal financial obligations to children in different complex family situations. We find that when a nonresident parent owes support to two nonresident children in different families, the most common policy is to have unequal obligations favoring the older child. However, nearly as many countries achieve equal orders, but do so by reducing the obligation to the older child. When a nonresident parent has one nonresident child and a new resident child, the most common strategy is to reduce the obligation to the older nonresident child, but to make no attempt to equalize obligations for both children. Each of the four main policy strategies we identify has advantages; tradeoffs among three principles of equality, affordability of obligations and protecting the first child's standard of living are discussed.